Elsinore council backs community garden

A Lake Elsinore resident's idea of launching the municipality's first community garden received the City Council's blessing this week.

The five-member council unanimously agreed Tuesday to let volunteers create a garden in Rosetta Canyon Community Park in the northeastern part of the city near Highway 74.

"I'm very excited about it," said the chief proponent, Silvia Monaco, of the council's decision. "We've been working on it for a long time. ... I know it's going to be a great project."

Monaco went before the City Council several months ago to propose the garden, which she envisions as generating produce for local food banks.

Since then, the idea has been gathering steam with the enthusiastic support of Lake Elsinore Citizens Corps leader John Larsen and members of the artists' cooperative, Studio 395.

"It is a worthwhile project for the community because it does bring people together," Larsen told the council members. "It is a lot of fun. It gets you outside."

The council's action in approving a memorandum of understanding puts the city's official support behind the project, contingent upon the proponents forming a club of participants, submitting a plan for making the garden, raising money, establishing rules for operations and participation, and obtaining a license to run the garden on park property.

Parks and Recreation Director Pat Kilroy said the memorandum "sets out a road map for implementing the community garden. ... It's really up to the proponents of the community garden to make the project happen."

Kilroy said he believes a field next to the Rosetta Canyon facility's dog park would be an ideal locale for the garden. He said he envisions the city supplying water, which he estimated could cost about $1,000 per year.

The garden club, however, will be responsible for installing the irrigation system, fencing and other supplies.

"There are a few unknowns at this time for the concept of the community garden to sprout and flourish," Kilroy said.

Council members expressed support for the project, while voicing concerns about security. Councilman Daryl Hickman wondered if a garden would succeed in the park because of the rocky soil there. Monaco, however, said she plans on putting in raised garden beds containing imported growing soil.